The Evening Blues - 4-18-23



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Lovie Lee

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues piano player Lovie Lee. Enjoy!

Lovie Lee - Nobody Knows My Troubles

"Three things cannot long be hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."

-- Confucius


News and Opinion

The Teixeira Documents Are Being Kept Secret By Media

So, back when the DNC was hacked and documents were leaked showing that the DNC had been helping Clinton and kneecapping Sanders, I found it interesting that most of the media focused on “the Russians did it!” rather than on the content of the leak, which was, after all, in the public interest to know.

The same thing is going on with the Texeira documents. WSWS has a particularly good article on this:

While about 60 or so documents have been made public so far, US media outlets indicate they have access to far more. The Washington Post reported Thursday, “The Post also reviewed approximately 300 photos of classified documents, most of which have not been made public.”

And the Post and the other media outlets are responsible for maintaining this secrecy. They are not reporting information that undermines and contradicts the official line from the Pentagon, State Department and White House.

Rather, the Post is selectively releasing sections of the documents with an aim to facilitate US war propaganda. An article published Thursday by anti-China war propagandist Josh Rogin declared, “The most shocking intel leak reveals new Chinese military advances.”

None of this is particularly surprising if you were an adult who was paying attention during the Iraq War and especially the run-up to it. The media actively colluded with the state to promote the war and actively got rid of prominent journalists who had the gall to oppose it and call out the lies. ...

The New York Times, during the 2004 election, knew that Bush had been spying on Americans in dragnet fashion: both illegal and likely to be unpopular. It held publication until after the election and explicitly said that it did so because it didn’t want to influence the election. ...

In the same way, the Texeira documents being withheld almost certainly contain revelations that would hurt the current government support for continued help to Ukraine to fight Russia.

Pentagon Leaker Jack Teixeira Is A HERO; Public Deserves To Know

Rep. Gaetz Resolution Would Make Biden Disclose Number of US Troops in Ukraine

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on Monday introduced a resolution that would require President Biden to disclose the number of US troops inside Ukraine and share all documents outlining US military assistance for Kyiv with the House. ...

“The Biden Administration and other allied countries have been misleading the world on the state of the war in Ukraine. There must be total transparency from this administration to the American people when they are gambling war with a nuclear adversary by having special forces operating in Ukraine,” Gaetz said in a statement.

Brazil's President CALLS OUT Biden For Encouraging War In Ukraine

Russia jamming U.S. smart bombs in Ukraine, leaked docs say

American-made smart bombs are falling victim to Russian electronic jamming in Ukraine, causing them to miss their targets, according to leaked documents and confirmed by a Defense Department official.

In some cases, the weapons were also failing to detonate due to a technical issue, which Ukrainian troops have since addressed. ...

The Pentagon in December began sending Kyiv advanced equipment that could convert unguided air-dropped munitions into precision-guided “smart bombs” that can hit Russian targets with a higher degree of accuracy.

The guided bombs can be launched by a variety of aircraft such as bombers and fighters, and are called Joint Direct Attack Munitions or JDAMs. The longer-range version being sent to Ukraine is called a JDAM-Extended Range, or JDAM-ER.

But the weapons have experienced higher-than-expected dud rates and have missed their targets on the battlefield, according to a leaked slide prepared by the Joint Staff and confirmed by a U.S. official, who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.

Putin visits frontline, prepares defense and offense

Corporate Media Are the Anti-WikiLeaks

It was impossible to imagine four years ago when WikiLeaks Editor Julian Assange was hauled out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London and thrown in Belmarsh Prison that corporate media, which had smeared Assange, could stoop to new lows of government servitude. But it has now happened with the arrest of Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman, for allegedly leaking top secret government documents. The leaks exposed a number of significant lies told by both the U.S. government and corporate media about the ongoing war in Ukraine. ...

But how did major media react? The New York Times worked with Aric Toler, a U.S. and U.K. government-funded Bellingcat staff writer, to publicly expose accused leaker Teixeira less than a day after federal authorities had identified him. But the Times and The Washington Post had described Texiera without naming him before the Department of Justice had, in effect doing the F.B.I.’s job for them by tracking down the leaker.

According to the affidavit supporting the prosecution of Teixeira, who held a top security clearance, the F.B.I. subpoenaed Discord, an application often used by gamers to communicate, and where the documents were alleged to have been originally leaked. The information handed over by Discord then lead to Teixeira’s arrest.

The leak itself and the arrest of the alleged source is significant enough, but what makes this story disturbing is the role of the media in actively finding and exposing Teixeira, revealing his identity instead of protecting him.

The media frenzy appeared unanimous in its focus on identifying the leaker more than reporting on the newsworthy content of the material.

Lavrov’s Brazil visit highlights Lula’s neutral foreign policy despite US dismay

Russia’s minister of foreign affairs, Sergei Lavrov, is due to arrive in Brasília on Monday for talks with his Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Vieira, in the latest of a series of bilateral encounters likely to ruffle the US.

Lavrov arrives just as Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, returns from a state visit to China, and both missions are part of a diplomatic reset Lula has pursued since returning to power this year, as he strives to recover Brazil’s international reputation after his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, dismantled Brazil’s established tradition of cooperation.

For Brazil, that means rebuilding and maintaining ties with all partners, regardless of geopolitical tensions elsewhere.

“To return to international politics, Brazil must have positive relationships with all countries,” said Rubens Duarte, coordinator of Mundolab, a Brazil-based research centre for international relations. This is coherent with Brazil’s traditional pursuit of multilateralism, he added.

It is a pragmatic approach too: Brazil’s top trading partners are China and the US, while the South American country relies heavily on Russia for fertiliser imports.

Lula Puts Biden, Bernie To SHAME, Calls For Peace In Russia-Ukraine War: Sabby Sabs

FBI arrests two New Yorkers accused of running covert Chinese police station

The FBI has arrested two men accused of running a covert station for China’s police force in New York, and using it as a base to track Chinese dissidents living in the US.

The station, in Manhattan’s Chinatown, was allegedly set up in February 2022 and operated by Beijing’s ministry of public security (MPS) as part of a campaign of transnational repression against Chinese pro-democracy activists and other political opponents around the world.

The justice department also announced charges on Monday against 40 MPS officers and four others for allegedly running an internet troll operation against dissidents in the US, creating fake social media accounts to harass them and recruiting an employee at an unnamed US telecoms company to have a pro-democracy activist removed from the platform. The officers, thought to be in China, are alleged to be members of an MPS unit, the “912 special project working group”, dedicated to the pursuit of dissidents abroad.

The alleged secret police station in New York was raided in October, and on Monday morning the FBI arrested two New Yorkers suspected of running it. China has insisted that the New York site and similar offices around the world are run by volunteers and are not connected with the police. Breon Peace, the US attorney for the eastern district of New York, said there was now evidence of direct ties.

Enslavement of African migrants ‘big business’ in Libya thanks to EU funding — UN

An investigation by the United Nations has concluded that money provided by the European Union to state entities in Libya has facilitated crimes against humanity ranging from forced labor and sexual slavery to torture.

Through its financial support of the Libyan Coast Guard and the Libyan Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration (DCIM), the European Union has aided and abetted crimes against humanity, according to a recent UN report.

On March 27, 2023, the United Nations released the findings of a three-year investigation, confirming that “arbitrary detention, murder, rape, enslavement, sexual slavery, extrajudicial killing and enforced disappearance” has become a “widespread practice” in the once-prosperous nation of Libya, which was plunged into civil war by NATO’s regime change war over a decade ago.

While crimes against humanity were found to be widespread throughout the country, the report homed in on the plight of migrants and blamed the European Union for enabling the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity to enact abuses against Africans seeking asylum in Europe.

The report stated in its introductory section: “The Mission found that crimes against humanity were committed against migrants in places of detention under the actual or nominal control of Libya’s Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration, the Libyan Coast Guard and the Stability Support Apparatus. These entities received technical, logistical and monetary support from the European Union and its member States for, inter alia, the interception and return of migrants.”

After pension reform, France's Macron promises govt action plan in next 100 days

Chile takes on ‘moral duty’ of finding the disappeared of Pinochet regime

This September will mark the 50th anniversary of Augusto Pinochet’s bloody coup which overthrew Chile’s democratically elected government. During the 17-year regime which followed, an estimated 40.000 people were tortured, and more than 3,000 killed. Only 310 of the forcibly disappeared have been identified and estimates for those still missing range from 1109 to 1469.

This March, Chile’s president, Gabriel Boric, announced the launch of a new plan to find the missing, part of his government’s electoral pledge to address human rights violations committed during the dictatorship. “We have a moral duty to never stop looking,” he said on a visit to a memorial site in the north of Chile, where the bodies of 20 victims of Pinochet’s murderous campaign were unearthed in 1990.

The National Search Plan is the first time in Chile’s democratic history that a government has backed a permanent search effort for the forcibly disappeared. A monumental task lies ahead: during the regime, political prisoners were abducted and executed throughout the country: from the vast northern desert, to the dense forests of the south. More than a hundred were taken in helicopters and cast – still alive – into the sea.

The National Search Plan not only aims to find and identify the forcibly disappeared, but also to bring justice to the families affected by Pinochet’s atrocities. ...

Pinochet himself died in 2006, never having faced justice, despite his arrest in London in 1998. He spent a year and half under house arrest – during which Margaret Thatcher sent him a gift of Scottish single malt whisky – and was eventually freed on “humanitarian grounds”. He died with over 300 pending charges against him.

"Poverty, by America": Author Matthew Desmond on How U.S. Punishes the Poor & Rewards the Wealthy

McCarthy to Wall Street: GOP Will Hold Economy Hostage to Cut Aid Programs

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told the New York Stock Exchange on Monday that his caucus will not pass legislation to raise the debt ceiling unless it includes steep federal spending cuts and work requirements for key aid programs, a position that Democratic lawmakers slammed as dangerous and foolish hostage-taking. ...

The Wall Street audience, though, applauded McCarthy's (R-Calif.) speech, in which he attempted to blame President Joe Biden for a looming debt default that would have catastrophic impacts on the U.S. and global economies. McCarthy also pledged to oppose any new tax increases, a message that appeared to go over well on Wall Street. ...

"If you agree, join us," McCarthy told the Wall Street audience. "Join us in demanding a reasonable negotiation and responsible debt ceiling agreement that brings spending under control."

The Republican leader said the GOP measure will also include new work requirements for recipients of federal nutrition assistance and Medicaid—mandates that experts say could deprive millions of families of food aid and health coverage. (Most SNAP and Medicaid recipients who are able to work already do so.)

Minnesota appeals court upholds Derek Chauvin’s murder conviction

The Minnesota court of appeals on Monday upheld the most serious murder conviction against the former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, for the killing of George Floyd.

Chauvin is serving a 22-and-a-half-year sentence on the second-degree murder count, arising from the death of Floyd on 25 May 2020. ...

Chauvin’s attorney, William Mohrman, asked the appeals court to throw out Chauvin’s convictions for reasons including massive pre-trial publicity. He also argued that legal and procedural errors deprived Chauvin of a fair trial. Prosecutors said Chauvin got a fair trial and just sentence.

Worth a peek.

What happened when US police teargassed protesters

Investigators have created a 3D simulation of the Portland police bureau’s (PPB) extraordinary use of teargas during a major protest event on 2 June 2020.

Forensic Architecture (FA), a research agency that investigates human rights violations, worked with weapons experts to analyze hundreds of videos from that evening, along with internal police files, invoice records, manufacturer data and photos of teargas canisters. The analysis reveals that the city’s downtown was blanketed with gas at more than 50 times the level federal regulators consider “immediately dangerous to life or health”.

The findings, about the day local activists called Teargas Tuesday, forcefully contradict the department’s assertions in internal reports at the time, in which officers defended their “heroic actions”, saying police showed “extreme restraint”, “observed no injuries” from the spraying and used teargas to target specific individuals.

The model is the first of its kind to calculate the chemical concentrations in the air and deposits on the ground during a major teargas event in the US. It builds on existing reports and litigation alleging the months-long teargas use during the summer of protests caused severe injuries, long-term health problems, menstrual irregularities and environmental hazards.

The research renews pressure on the scandal-ridden police department and raises significant public health and civil rights concerns at a time when law enforcement agencies in the US and across the globe are escalating their use of teargas on crowds, including against protesters for abortion rights and police accountability

Family of Lashawn Thompson Demands Justice After He Was "Eaten Alive" by Insects in Atlanta Jail

Suspect Andrew Lester CHARGED After Shooting 16 Yr Old Through Door; Woman KILLED In Similar Event

Police charge white man for shooting Black teen boy who had wrong address

A white homeowner in Kansas City, Missouri, has been charged with armed assault after he shot a Black teenager who rang his doorbell by mistake, authorities announced on Monday.

Andrew Lester, 85, is also facing a charge of armed criminal action after shooting Ralph Yarl, 16, twice on Thursday. The teenager, a high school junior, was going to pick up his younger twin brothers from a play date when he went to the wrong address. Zachary Thompson, the prosecuting attorney, announced the charges late on Monday after intense local protests and widespread outrage over the police’s decision to briefly detain Lester before releasing him without charges.

Lester was not in custody early Monday evening, but there was a warrant out for his arrest, Thompson said. Charging documents said that Lester came to the door when the doorbell rang and then shot the boy in the head, before shooting him again, and that no words were exchanged before he opened fire.

Yarl was recovering at home after being released from a Kansas City hospital on Sunday, where he was being treated for gunshot wounds to his head and chest, his family said. Lee Merritt, an attorney for the family, told the Guardian that Yarl suffered a fractured skull, a traumatic brain injury involving swelling, post-concussive syndrome and injuries to his arm. “The family is elated that Ralph didn’t succumb to his injuries, but now they’re angry about the failure of the justice system to show any value or appreciation of his life,” Merritt said in an interview on Monday morning before the charges were announced.

Kansas City police had insisted earlier that they could not take further action until they spoke to the seriously injured boy.



the horse race



Judge rejects Trump request to delay rape trial over negative publicity

Donald Trump’s rape trial will begin next week as scheduled after a federal judge rejected a request for a one-month delay, saying the former president cannot make public statements to promote pre-trial publicity and then claim it is prejudicial to him and reason to delay.

Lewis A Kaplan, a federal judge in Manhattan, said the civil trial on claims against Trump by the columnist E Jean Carroll will begin as scheduled on 25 April. Trump denies the rape or knowing Carroll.

Kaplan rejected arguments by Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina that the former president’s recent indictment in New York state court on criminal falsification of business records charges created such negative publicity that a one-month cooling-off period was needed before the rape trial could begin.

Kaplan said: “There was, of course, a great deal of media coverage – some of it invited and, indeed, provoked by Mr Trump – first of the apparently impending indictment, then the indictment itself, and finally the arraignment. ...

“It does not sit well for Mr Trump to promote pretrial publicity and then to claim that coverage that he promoted was prejudicial to him and should be taken into account as supporting a further delay,” the judge said, adding that he was also concerned that the request was a “delay tactic by Mr Trump”.

Biden Aides TERRIFIED He's Too Old To Run



the evening greens


New Report Details Harmful Impact of Air Pollution at Every Stage of Life

Air pollution negatively affects every stage of human life, from impairing fetal development and physical as well as intellectual growth during childhood to accelerating bodily and cognitive decline in adulthood.

That's according to a new report, released Monday by the Environmental Research Group at Imperial College London (ICL), which synthesizes the findings of more than 35,000 studies on the connections between air pollution and ill health published over the past decade by scientists from around the globe.

The review of research from the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and other institutions puts an emphasis on investigations "carried out in the United Kingdom, London, or cities with similar air pollution climates."

"Numerous studies across Europe, including several conducted in London, have shown direct impacts of contemporary air pollution in our city," says the report. "These include evidence that air pollution exposure is having impacts during pregnancy and affecting birth outcomes, that school children are experiencing slower lung development, worsening of asthma symptoms, and poorer mental health, and that Londoners are suffering more disease in later life and dying earlier because of the air they breathe."

"While headline figures on the health impact of air pollution focus on the equivalent number of premature deaths, the wider impacts are hiding in plain sight in the contribution of air pollution to the burden of chronic diseases," the report continues. "These affect our quality of life and have a large cost to society through additional health and social care costs, as well our ability to learn, work, and contribute to society."

"Perhaps the most important new finding is evidence related to both the impact of air pollution on brain health, including mental health and dementia, and early life impacts that could lead to future health burdens within the population," it adds. "Both represent significant but currently unquantified costs to society and the economy."

ICL's analysis of studies published since 2012 details how air pollution, which WHO describes as a global public health emergency, harms people from conception to old age.

Canada to pay $800m to settle land dispute with five First Nations

Canada has agreed to pay C$800m (US$600m) to settle a land claims dispute with five First Nations, an acknowledgment it failed to honour a treaty signed more than a century ago – and the latest in a string of deals reshaping the relationship between government and Indigenous communities. Over the weekend, officials with both the federal and British Columbia governments admitted successive administrations had broken their promises to the Blueberry River First Nations, the Doig River First Nation, the Halfway River First Nation, the Saulteau First Nations and the West Moberly First Nations.

The nations signed Treaty 8 in 1899, which promised them access to their traditional hunting grounds and the ability to generate income from the land. But a protracted refusal by the province and the federal government to make good on the agreement forced the nations to spend more than two decades battling for compensation. ...

In 2021, the British Columbia supreme court sided with Blueberry River after a multi-year legal fight, finding the province had violated the nation’s treaty rights by allowing fossil-fuel development in the region, which had prevented the nation from being able to live off the land.

That court decision culminated in a January agreement with the province that would see new protections for wildlife, a halt to logging in old-growth forests, new compensation for the community and limits on how much land resource companies can disturb. The provincial government has also agreed to establish a C$200m restoration fund to support “healing” of the land from years of industrial disturbance. ...

The province said it will transfer 109,385 acres of crown land under the settlement to the 3,300 people living within the five First Nations.


Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

The Totalitarian Dystopia Is Already Here: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

British Media’s Deception on ‘Disinformation’

Patrick Lawrence: Macron’s Europe

JPMorgan Chase’s Deposits Declined by 57 Times that of Citigroup Over Past 12 Months

Chris Hedges: Taking Back Our Universities From Corporate Apparatchiks

DISASTER CAPITALISM: Bank Execs DROOL Over Ukraine Profits

BOMBSHELL! Government Is Reading Our DMs – Says Elon Musk

Chinese Defense Minister in Moscow. Preparing for the battle to come


A Little Night Music

Lovie Lee - Flip, Flop, And Fly

Lovie Lee - Lovie's Boogie

Lovie Lee - Tricky Woman

Lovie Lee - I Dare You

Lovie Lee - The Mule

Lovie Lee with Carey Bell - Naptown

Lovie Lee - Good Candy

Lovie Lee - Iko Iko

Lovie Lee - Woke Up This Morning

Lovie Lee with Carey Bell - Sweet little girl


Share
up
16 users have voted.

Comments

soryang's picture

Taiwan to buy 400 Harpoon missiles from US to thwart Chinese attack

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan is reportedly in the process of purchasing 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles from the U.S. in a bid to bolster its defenses against a potential Chinese invasion.

Bloomberg News on Tuesday (April 18) cited U.S.-Taiwan Business Council President Rupert Hammond-Chambers and people familiar with the matter revealing that Taiwan will purchase as many as 400 land-launched Harpoon missiles, completing an arms deal approved by the U.S. Congress in 2020. The report said that Taiwan had previously purchased the ship-based version of the Harpoon, but this will be the first time the country will obtain the land-based variant.

Hammond-Chambers said that the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command has signed a contract on behalf of Taiwan, and three others familiar with the matter, including an industry official, also confirmed the contract is with Taiwan.

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4866753

Is Taiwan buying them, or the US taxpayer?

Earlier Defense News article on the push for financing US arms to Taiwan is informative on how the budget process for weapons sales goes in DC.

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department wants to take full advantage of the authorities Congress recently granted to transfer arms to Taiwan, but first it needs the lawmakers who control the purse strings to follow through with hard cash.

Congress greenlighted $3 billion in total annual military aid to Taiwan as part of the fiscal 2023 defense authorization bill through accounts managed by both the Pentagon and the State Department. But for the most part, Congress did not approve funding for those authorities in its FY23 spending bill. In recent weeks, senior Pentagon officials have started calling on congressional appropriators to allocate the funding they require to begin using Taiwan military aid authorities.

https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2023/04/06/pentagon-to-use-new-taiw...

I had missed this great interview (below) with Tim Shorrock on why the so called "deal" reconciling South Korea with Japan, isn't a deal at all. It's a humiliating capitulation by South Korea's far right administration. Tim really gives a great summary of historical background on US-South Korea-Japan relations to show how this is so. I've rarely seen this topic so well explained to a US audience.

Tim can't make every historical or political observation in a relatively short video interview. Japanese brutalization of Koreans began in earnest during the Tonghak uprising in 1894-95. Most commentary simply refers to the 1910-1945 colonial administration of Korea by Japan. Also the political divide between those collaborators who prospered during the Japanese colonial oppression of Korea and those who opposed them in the Independence Movement, isn't just between North and South Korea. The political divide still exists today in South Korea between ordinary South Koreans and current ruling elites who inherited their wealth from collaborationist families and the colonial government officials who served them and the Japanese.

The later class of privileged intelligentsia, government bureaucracy, and military officers, if you will, served those business ruling elites in the sequential dictatorships of South Korea that protected them from the public seeking justice. They are still there fighting their rear guard ideological pro-Japanese mission. They label anyone who opposes them as a communist or communist sympathizer. In their minds, there is no difference among a labor organizer, a socialist, and a communist. If you oppose the corporate chaebol or their overtures toward Japan, you are red. This is a major element on what is going on with the Yoon administration today. Most democrats are regarded as red, that is communist sympathizers, specifically supporters of North Korea's communists. It is an overly simplistic ideological perspective on the right.

I've been watching Taebaeksanmaek (1994) on youtube, an old South Korean movie on the brutal turbulent period in South Korea after WWII and before the Korean conflict. It's long, didn't finish it yet. It's not a pleasant film although I recall reading some critics considered it one of South Korea's classics. The movie is for adults, there is a lot of violence, rape, etc. English subtitles. I don't think a movie like this could be made before 1994. The movie isn't for everyone but it shows how there was a civil war going on in South Korea before the Korean war, and what it was like. The war was between those who wanted independence, from the US sponsored government of Lee Syngman, that basically arose out of the US occupation and the prior Japanese colonial administration.

Thanks for EBs Joe! Always looking forward to your news and commentary.

up
12 users have voted.

語必忠信 行必正直

soryang's picture

@soryang Japan blast suspect Kimura filed lawsuit over election rules

SCMP (AFP) April 18

A man accused of throwing an explosive at Japan’s prime minister had previously filed a lawsuit against the government, a court spokesman said on Tuesday.

Japanese media said the lawsuit filed in June by the suspect, named as 24-year-old Ryuji Kimura, was a complaint about the country’s minimum age for running in elections.

In a document submitted to the court after his lawsuit was filed, Kimura had reportedly criticised a state funeral that was held for Abe, whose murder traumatised the nation.
He also reportedly criticised Abe’s alleged links to the Unification Church among other organisations.

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3217455/japan-blast-sus...

up
8 users have voted.

語必忠信 行必正直

@soryang

There was a lot of mostly unstated sympathy among Japanese for the motives of Abe's assassin - he came from what had been a fairly well to do situation but his mother had basically given away the family fortune to the (renamed) Unification Church. Not so sure what people think of this latest guy - more along the lines of him being a bit crazy/obsessed.

There was considerable (by Japanese standards) pushback against public funds being used for an elaborate state funeral for Abe - it was scaled back somewhat and quite a few (ruling party) LDP politicians were found to have questionable relations with the Moonies and were scrambling to deny/minimize/deflect...

Attempted or successful assassinations are not all *that* rare in Japan:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/07/08/national/crime-legal/assass...

up
3 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@soryang

thanks for the news and the video. i enjoyed listening to shorrock. i had heard a lot of what he said about the historical wrongs done by the japanese to the koreans, but a lot of his commentary about how the u.s. has interacted with groups in korea is stuff that i really haven't heard much about.

i'm sure that whoever it is that makes land-based harpoon missiles will have a gaggle of lobbyists swarming the capitol and they will likely have success in getting their allocation since there's nothing that our congressworms would rather spend their declining pile of appropriated budget dollars on than weaponry. (as opposed of course to things that people need - food, clothing, housing, medical care, education, etc.)

up
7 users have voted.

@joe shikspack

we can at least have some assurance they won't be sold off to the black market to enrich corrupt generals.

And only used for defensive purposes. (Unless there's a planned invasion of the PRC that has managed to remain really, really secret)

up
2 users have voted.
soryang's picture

@Blue Republic ...into the US-Japanese co-dominion security perimeter after Nixon let it go for strategic regions is an expansionist encroachment on legitimate Chinese national security interests. This encroachment on Chinese security operates in the same way that Maidan and attempts to bring Ukraine within the NATO perimeter was an encroachment into Russian legitimate national security interests.

I understand there are now 200 US military advisors in Taiwan.

200 US military trainers now in Taiwan
80% of instructors are from US army to train Taiwan Army on how to counter PLA tactics

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4866003

up
5 users have voted.

語必忠信 行必正直

@soryang

The Maidan coup was against a popularly elected government to install corrupt Nazi thugs.

In contrast, the government of Taiwan is a popularly elected one - and even the more pro-PRC elements there have been unwilling to enter into any of the PRC's unification proposals. The Taiwanese electorate has made it pretty clear that they want to be left alone. The PRC, by it's ongoing provocations and threats has made it very clear that they are unwilling to do so.

China's 'legitimate security interests' are under threat? Really?

What, the US and Japan are preparing to launch an invasion? Maybe in league with the Kazakhstanis, Brunei and Mongolia to launch a pre-emptive strike?

The Chinese military buildup of recent years is beyond anything seen since the German re-armament of the 1930's. It's clearly designed for the blockade and/or invasion of Taiwan and beyond that enforcing the PRC's dubious territorial claims in the South China Sea and projecting power into the Indian Ocean. China is not under threat here, it is the other countries of the region.

The only people with a legitimate claim to Taiwan are the people who live there. Everyone aside from the PRC leadership seems to be fine with that. If the Taiwanese want to maintain their own governance and separate status then that's all that should matter - and ought to be respected.

up
1 user has voted.
soryang's picture

@Blue Republic @Blue Republic ...completely disregards the history of the region and who has imperial designs on China. It's the traditional imperial powers of Japan and the US. Taiwan was a Japanese colony for half a century, and then was occupied by US forces forces until the 70s. It is the US that interfered in an internal Chinese war. It wisely choose to abandon that policy in the seventies, and now decades later has returned to the unrealistic cold war perspective which brought on the Korean and Vietnam wars.

It is the US that is projecting its power into the Chinese littoral seas in an atavistic return to the colonial perspectives of the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Such views and policies if unchanged will result in war. The geo-political designs of Japan and the US have nothing to do with "democratic values." Japan is basically a one party state, and South Korea is reverting to dictatorship. In another case of deja vu, we have a Marcos in power in the Philippines opening up more US bases with a view toward fighting a war in the East China Sea and South China Sea.

(Source- The Coming War on China, John Pilger, youtube)

The US-Japanese goal is to return to the old imperial gunboat diplomacy and bring Taiwan back into their first island chain so they can prepare their "strangle China" strategy.

Chinese claims in the South China Sea are based on the EEZs there that they are entitled to under international law. The US has no literally no business interfering in disputed claims to reefs and low water elevations in the disputed EEZs. It has nothing to do with "freedom of navigation." The Japanese designed the legalist strategy that is used to camouflage their imperial perspective. They stage managed the so called mandatory arbitration under UNCLOS at the PCA. The decision is void for lack of jurisdiction and violating its own rules. Even Taiwan disputes the 2016 UNCLOS arbitration. According to Japan and the US every war they have been involved in is "lawful."

Taiwan is a part of China. It's a simple as that.

up
4 users have voted.

語必忠信 行必正直

@soryang

content but there is always a certain level of propaganda contained depending on the source. Timing is everything!

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2023/04/11/boeing-harpoon-missile-award/

The US Navy has awarded Boeing a $1.17 billion contract to produce and deliver 400 Harpoon tactical missiles and support equipment.

In addition to 400 RGM-84L-4 Harpoon Block II Update (HIIU) Grade B canister tactical missiles, the contract includes four RTM-84L-4 Block II HIIU Grade B canister exercise missiles, Harpoon Coastal Defense System (HCDS) spares, containers, blast test vehicles, and technical publications.

Nearly two-thirds (63 percent or $629.7 million) of the award is reserved for foreign military sales. While the Pentagon did not disclose the names of the foreign customers, Taiwan is a known purchaser.

Deliveries of the Harpoon coastal missile defense system to the Asian country are expected to be completed by 2028, part of a 2020 $2.37-billion package that includes more than 400 missiles, 100 launchers, radars, and support equipment.

up
7 users have voted.

being handled by the compromised MSM.

https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-04-18-23/in...

Leaked documents: The leaked Pentagon documents are not impacting the actions of NATO allies when it comes to Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN Tuesday, adding some of the items leaked are "incorrect and manipulated." Western officials also told CNN during a Tuesday briefing the leaked documents have had no visible impact on the battlefield in Ukraine.

up
8 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

i would imagine that the information that stoltenberg thinks is manipulated and what a rational being thinks is manipulated is very different.

up
7 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

Simplicius has a new sitrep He sure puts a lot of effort into his work and admits that he isn’t always sure if something is true or not, but the Ukraine welding people into tanks looks to be true. simplicius addresses the leaks too.

Thanks for the news, Joe. I think there is a lot of actual information in the leaks, but figuring it out from the propaganda will take time.

up
9 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

interesting sitrep report, thanks!

regarding the expected ukronazi springish offensive, i suspect that it will happen or not based upon ukraines ability to force men into the field - and then whatever happens will be spun. unless russia makes a conclusive victory on the battlefield, utterly routing the ukronazis, the war will continue interminably.

up
7 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

It’s rumored that 200 people from NATO were in the bunker and only 40 bodies have been recovered. It’s in Russian, but I could translate it. This might be why Ukraine hasn’t started its offensive, but simp has info saying that it will happen between now and may 9th so who knows.

What happened in early March near Lviv, the military departments of the United States, Great Britain, Poland and some other NATO countries prefer not to stutter even a word. And when corrosive journalists who smelled about a terrible emergency ask generals and politicians questions about it, they receive either a "no comment" or crafty references to "ignorance" about what happened. But nevertheless, the "awl out of the bag" is still starting to get out. Information is increasingly leaking to the Western and Ukrainian press, as well as in social networks from various sources, which is very well joined in detail and allows you to present a reliable scenario of an extremely painful drama (even tragedy) for NATO and their allies

Читайте на WWW.KP.RU: https://www.kp.ru/daily/27490.5/4748875/

up
6 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

if that did happen, i suspect that it may be decades before it is admitted by the west.

up
4 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

Even if it’s only 40 people who died they have to explain why they did. If it’s 200 that’s a lot of deaths to explain and there are more people from certain countries that did. I saw a headline on a person who died in Ukraine, but it said that he wasn’t involved in fighting Russia. A few people have died after telling their families that they were going to go help Ukraine defend themselves from Russia, but there are plenty more people who are there incognito.

So many lies….

up
6 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

yep, 40 people sounds like a lot (and it is a lot to die in a stupid imperial war) but, the police in the u.s. murder more than 25 times that number every year and you almost never hear about it.

up
7 users have voted.

What about the rules during the primary with Bernie?

up
7 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

hillary knows that rules are for losers and for lawyers to argue about in our two-tiered legal system where the rich, powerful and well-connected operate with impunity.

up
9 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@humphrey

From the woman who will never be president! Gawd I’m so thankful that her coronation was derailed and she will never be fulfil her biggest dream! It was with her presidency in mind that McCain and Graham promised the Nazis that they would be fully armed once Obama left office. The war would have started 4 years ago if she had won. Sweet dreams derailed! And boy if that picture doesn’t capture the essence of her soul! Yee gawds might make a train want to take a dirt road.

up
9 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

karl pearson's picture

@snoopydawg
This could be HRC's theme song. All she has is sweet dreams, since she was bested by Donald Trump. I doubt she would appreciate Patsy Cline's voice, after her snide comments regarding Tammy Wynette.

up
7 users have voted.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/18/politics/us-warns-russia-zaporizhzhia-nuc...

The US has sensitive nuclear technology at a nuclear power plant inside Ukraine and is warning Russia not to touch it, according to a letter the US Department of Energy sent to Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy firm Rosatom last month.

In the letter, which was reviewed by CNN and is dated March 17, 2023, the director of the Energy Department’s Office of Nonproliferation Policy, Andrea Ferkile, tells Rosatom’s director general that the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Enerhodar “contains US-origin nuclear technical data that is export-controlled by the United States Government.”

Goods, software and technology are subject to US export controls when it is possible for them to be used in a way that undermines US national security interests.

The Energy Department letter comes as Russian forces continue to control the plant, which is the largest nuclear power station in Europe and sits in a part of the Zaporizhzhia region that Russia occupied after its invasion of Ukraine last February. The plant has frequently been disconnected from Ukraine’s power grid due to intense Russian shelling in the area, raising fears across Europe of a nuclear accident.

“It is unlawful under United States law for non-authorized persons, including, but not limited to, Russian citizens and Russian entities,” the letter says, “such as Rosatom and its subsidiaries, to knowingly and willfully access, possess, control, export, store, seize, review, re-export, ship, transfer, copy, manipulate such technology or technical data, or direct, or authorize others to do the same, without such Russian entities becoming authorized recipients by the Secretary of the US Department of Energy.”

up
6 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

i can see the people at rosatom scratching their heads now. "look misha, some trolls in the u.s. government have taken up their crayons and sent us a letter."

up
8 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

I wonder how many Divisions Matt Gaetz has?

Rep. Gaetz Resolution Would Make Biden Disclose Number of US Troops in Ukraine

Really? How? It can demand that he do so and if he doesn't? Contempt of Congress allegation by Gaetz versus National Security and military/official sekrets allegation by Biden easily drags on for a year or two.

Enslavement of African migrants ‘big business’ in Libya thanks to EU funding — UN

Heh. US/NATO touches something and it turns to shit. Quelle surprise. How was that not forseen? Because hubris and stupidity and "exceptional". And the EU foots the bill? No shit, somebody has to, right. They want that Libyan sweet light crude, n'est ce pas?

be well and have a good one

up
7 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

perhaps gaetz would have been more effective if his resolution was to suspend any funding for u.s. troops on ukrainian soil. that would be enforceable by congress. not that the congressworms would vote for it. but that's another story.

have a great evening!

up
8 users have voted.

I didn't bother listening to what she had to say as the gestures were than enough.

up
5 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@humphrey

she's only a heartbeat away from the presidency. it's like the dan quayle problem all over again.

up
6 users have voted.

Not my favorite site but still.

https://southfront.org/margarita-simonyan-offered-to-exchange-whelan-kar...

Editor-in-chief of Russia Today Margarita Simonyan invited US authorities to exchange three prisoners in Russia for founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange.

The prisoners in question are spy and former U.S. Marine Paul Nicholas Whelan, American journalist Evan Gershkovich and opposition journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza who, in addition to Russian citizenship, has British citizenship and a residence permit in the United States.

Margarita Simonyan wrote in her telegram channel:

“Swap Whelan, Kara-Murza and Gershkovich for Assange. They won’t exchange him for less than three. Save one useful life at the cost of three destructive ones,” Simonyan wrote.

up
8 users have voted.
soryang's picture

Yoon says S. Korea could provide non-humanitarian aid to Ukraine
April 19, YNA

SEOUL, April 19 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol has said South Korea could provide aid beyond humanitarian or financial support if Ukraine comes under a large-scale attack against civilians, according to an interview published Wednesday.

Yoon made the remark in the interview with Reuters ahead of an upcoming state visit to the United States, signaling a shift in Seoul's policy of not providing lethal weapons to Ukraine in its war with Russia.

"If there is a situation the international community cannot condone, such as any large-scale attacks on civilians, massacres or serious violations of the laws of war, it might be difficult for us to insist only on humanitarian or financial support," Yoon said, according to Reuters.

https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20230419003051315

Yoon also made a comment suggesting that he has adopted the US position on Taiwan completely. Another of Yoon's recent statements reveals not only his irrationality but his recognition that his fellow South Koreans don't support his foreign policy:

"Even if only one percent of citizens support my foreign policy, I will do what I have to do."

There is old Chinese admonition about the incompetence of a leader who intentionally chooses to alienate his much more powerful neighbor. In this instance, there are two, Russia and China. China is still making symbolic gestures of openness to a positive relationship with South Korea, specifically the economic relationship with South Korea's hi tech industries. Yoon's present course, if unchanged, ultimately will alienate China or cause a rift with his chaebol/corporate supporters. Yoon is literally willing to dissipate defense sector resources and commercial interests for US objectives rather than those that are distinctly in the greater interest of South Korea. There are mutual US-South Korean security interests; in fact, I would say there are mutual US-Korean interests. However, they are not identical.

Here Yoon tries to make it sound like he's somehow conscientiously placing limits on the unpopular tri-lateral (military) alliance posture he has recently adopted with Japan and the US as contrasted with the centrally important bilateral relationship with the US:

Yoon said South Korea is looking to strengthen bilateral measures with the United States in terms of information-sharing, joint contingency planning and joint execution of the plans, rather than envisioning an Asian version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's nuclear planning group involving Japan.

"In terms of responding to a powerful nuclear attack, I think stronger measures than what NATO has should be prepared,"...

The irony here is that Yoon has signaled his willingness to adopt what is in essence a NATO "partner" kind of role, by supporting the NATO war effort in Ukraine. At the same time, he wants a larger role in nuclear war planning with the US in the Korean theater that goes beyond what technically non-nuclear NATO states have.

Unbelievable.

up
5 users have voted.

語必忠信 行必正直

@soryang

up
5 users have voted.
soryang's picture

@humphrey

A blunt threat to the blundering Yoon.

Apart from the direct threat of Russian support for North Korea militarily at least in terms of war materials (or technology), the immediate upfront cost of Yoon's policies is to lose diplomatic support from Russia in any effort to negotiate the outstanding issues between North and South Korea. Yoon has clearly abandoned any prospect of negotiations with North Korea that would amount to anything but a surrender to US all or nothing terms. Even so, what incentive is there for Russia to encourage North Korea to act with restraint and keep dialogue with South Korea open if South Korea is supporting Ukraine militarily? .

up
3 users have voted.

語必忠信 行必正直